抄録
This paper is an attempt to clarify the nature of the “land revenue” of Upper Burma in the colonial period, focusing on the introduction of the thathameda tax and the tree revenue. The “land revenue” assessed in the settlement operations of Upper Burma consisted of three heads; the land revenue proper; the thathameda tax, which was by definition a tax on non-agricultural income; and the tree revenue, which was a tax on produce of toddy sugar. The latter two were actually remains of the comprehensive tax collected before the colonial period, called thathameda, and were planned to substitute land revenue proper at the beginning of the settlement operations. Moreover, they were assessed on each village, although the land revenue system of British Burma was based on the ryotwari system, under which individual cultivators were directly taxed. Why were the thathameda tax and the tree revenue introduced into the “land revenue” of Upper Burma? I argue that land revenue proper did not cover the produce from land, because the ryotwari system was not adaptable to the society of Upper Burma. So the thathameda tax and the tree revenue had to be introduced to supplement a deficit in land revenue proper.
